A swarm trap (or catcher), is a device that was used in the past to prevent a swarm leaving a hive. There were various designs, some of which can be seen in old books. They presumably had a queen excluder to prevent the queen leaving. I have seen old ones, but never seen one being used. It apparently caused great problems to a colony, because it also prevented drones from leaving the colony, so causing congestion.

Swarm traps are now often erroneously taken to mean a bait hive, which is a different thing. A bait hive is a hive set up with drawn comb that is placed in a position to attract a stray swarm.

Roger Patterson.

Page created 11/12/2022